How Shostakovich Changed My Mind

Description

A powerful look at the extraordinary healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness, including author Stephen Johnson’s struggle with bipolar disorder.

BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson explores the power of Shostakovichs music during Stalins reign of terror, and writes of the extraordinary healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness. Johnson looks at neurological, psychotherapeutic and philosophical findings, and reflects on his own experience, where he believes Shostakovichs music helped him survive the trials and assaults of bipolar disorder.

There is no escapism, no false consolation in Shostakovichs greatest music: this is some of the darkest, saddest, at times bitterest music ever composed. So why do so many feel grateful to Shostakovich for having created itnot just Russians, but westerners like Stephen Johnson, brought up in a very different, far safer kind of society? The book includes interviews with the members of the orchestra who performed Shostakovichs Leningrad Symphony during the siege of that city.